Jaffe's Game Heartland Gets Nixed

God of War creator David Jaffe recently went through a shift of focus with his career. He moved from creating grand operas like God of War to creating tight pop songs, like his upcoming Calling All Cars for the PS3. The game looks like cartoony multiplayer vehicular fun over the PlayStation network.

Jaffe recently voiced his concerns to Newsweek over the cancellation of his game Heartland for the PSP. It was an ambitious project for a handheld system where China invaded America and players had to choose sides. Gamers played a Chinese American and were given the choice to join the resistance, or the Chinese military. This game was obviously informed by Jaffe's position on the Bush administration.

"The game was very much a liberal person's response to the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. When I was entertaining lofty thoughts, the idea was to create an experience that would try to make the players--whom I mostly assumed would be of the Western world--feel what it must be like to have their own homeland occupied by another country. SCEA and I went back and forth over if we would ever say it was CHINA vs. AMERICA as they were a bit worried about being so literal, but that fight had not yet occurred when we pulled the plug. As for Phil [Harrison, Sony president of worldwide studios), his biggest issue was thinking a game so epic should be on PS3. But I was always pushing for PSP, saying that Heartland should do for the PSP what Halo did for the Xbox. But as you know, Phil's a total supporter of innovation and games as art and so he was more than willing to see if I had anything worthy to say, as well as the talents to say it through the medium."

Another reason for the cancellation of the game was an inadequate development team size. Had the team been big enough to keep up with the development demands, the game would still be in production today. The concept behind the driving action of the game sounds fantastic. Heartland dealt with similar themes as God of War, concerning the inner struggle of the protagonist. Here we have the struggle of racial lines drawn through the soul of the lead character, as he is pulled through a moral conundrum between heart and homeland. Let’s just hope that Jaffe gets to pick this project up again. I would hate to see this one go the way of the dodo.

Team Assault: God of War Series Creator David Jaffe [Newsweek]
[via 1up]